The resilience refers to the effective adaptation of individuals to stress circumstances. Of note, two different Chinese terms were used in this review to distinguish “resilience” in between humans and animals. Numerous studies have shown that medial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and other brain areas involved in reward circuits mediate resilience. In addition, the adaptive brain mechanisms may differ in susceptible individuals compared to resilient ones. In combination with the ethical and experimental findings in humans, the results from animal research toward understanding the mechanism of resilience will provide important reference and neural basis to improve human resilience.